'One does not die if it doesn't go the team's way': L Sivaramakrishnan urges commentators to do away with cliched term

Former India spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, who has been a renowned face in the world of commentary for a long time has urged his fellow commentators to refrain from using a cliched bowling term. The phrase Sivaramakrishnan has a problem with is 'death overs', which is sued to describe the final few overs of an innings.

In a tweet, Sivaramakrishnan has requested commentators around the globe to do away with using this term as he feels it has a negative connotation to it. His request comes at a time when the world continued to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic, as its newest variant Omicron continues to lead a spike in the number of cases across cities and countries around the world.

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"Request to all commentators, please don't say 'DEATH OVERS'. Either call it slog overs or end overs. We are going through a tough time. Death is not a nice word. The last ten overs are definitely important overs but one doesn't die if it doesn't go the team's way," Sivaramakrishnan tweeted.

In ODIs, ‘death overs’ is used to describe the last 10 overs of the innings, where the batting team tries to push most runs, while in T20Is, it refers to the final five overs of the innings. After retiring from cricket, Sivaramakrishnan took up commentary, in which he began his career in the year 2000 during a Test match between India and Bangladesh in Dhaka. He presently serves as one of the players’ representatives on the International Cricket Council’s cricket committee.

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Last year, in an interview with Hindustan Times, Sivaramakrishnan had reserved high praise for India pacer Mohammed Siraj, crediting part of his rise to his association with former bowling coach Bharat Arun.

"Siraj's success also has a lot to do with Arun. When he was the coach for Hyderabad for a year or so, he identified Siraj. And to Siraj's credit, he had the hunger and desire to learn. Arun imparted a lot of knowledge," he had said.

"Siraj has just followed him. Some people might doubt it. Be sceptical whether it is the right thing to do or not but Siraj took Arun as his guru and went about doing exactly what he wanted him to do. Arun must have then passed it on to Shastri."